BBC

Prehistoric Planet 2 teaser reveals fascinating and fearsome dinosaurs

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Prehistoric Planet 2 debuts May 22 in a week-long event on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

On Tuesday, aka National Velociraptor Awareness Day, Apple TV+ dropped a teaser trailer for season 2 of its award-winning natural history series, Prehistoric Planet. And it comes complete with an exciting “new” lineup of dinosaurs.

Narrated by the inimitable Sir David Attenborough — the voice of nature — the series uses new research and technological wizardry to create an in-depth nature documentary. But this one, returning May 22, takes you to landscapes filled with fearsome predators and gentle giants of many millions of years ago.

Looking back on our top apps of 2022

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Text reading “Best Apps 2022” in front of image of app icons
After careful consideration and a lengthy review of all the apps we use on a regular basis, these are some of our favorites from the year.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

With 2022 officially and fully in the rear-view, we’re all looking at how 2023 will be different. But some things don’t need to change. With that, it seemed only fair that we look back at some of the apps that made the biggest difference this past year. With so many apps to choose from, knowing the ones we (the Cult of Mac team) actually used and loved this last year may even help you nail that New Year’s resolution.

BritBox steps up fight against Apple TV+ with UK expansion

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BritBox
Enjoy BritBox today on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Photo: BritBox

BritBox has stepped up its fight against Apple TV+ and other streaming services by expanding its reach to the United Kingdom.

Priced at just £5.99 a month, the service offers an impressive catalog of content from leading British TV channels — including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5.

Harry Potter actress joins new Apple comedy series

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Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton made our skin crawl as Dolores Umbridge.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Tim Cook’s home state might become the backdrop of one of Apple’s new TV shows for 2020. Or at least, it’s lending its name to it.

In its first comedy co-production with the BBC, Apple has tapped Imelda Staunton to star in a new eight-part series that will also feature Darren Boyd and Phil Davis called Alabama.

Spotify listeners in the U.K. can now access BBC’s vast back catalog

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Spotify
Some of the BBC's radio shows on the service date back to the 1950s.
Photo: Spotify

If you live in the UK and are a fan of the BBC, Spotify has some good news for you — since it’s just added “thousands of episodes” of BBC content to its app.

“The BBC is one of the largest content creators in the UK, and have worked with the biggest and best audio talent in the world,” said James Cator, Spotify’s Head of Podcast Partnerships, in a statement. “To have a comprehensive audio catalogue in the UK, the BBC are essential, so adding the BBC to our rapidly-expanding catalogue of podcasts was a natural partnership.”

Oscar-nominated filmmaker says smartphone killed photography

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Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders wants to find a new term for the type of photography done with an iPhone.
Photo: BBC

So many people are taking so many pictures thanks to the iPhone. And yet, renowned filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders says photography is “more dead than ever.”

“The trouble with iPhone pictures is nobody sees them,” Wenders said in a recent BBC video interview during an exhibit of his Polaroid photos. “Even the people who take them don’t look at them anymore, and they certainly don’t make prints.”

Steve Jobs stars in awesome ’80s computer archive from BBC

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Steve Jobs
BBC's archive is a glimpse into the personal computer revolution as it took off.
Photo: BBC

Are you a computer history nerd? Want to hear 32-year-old Steve Jobs ruminating after the future of computing, or Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talk phone phreaking and the birth of the Apple II?

If so, you’ll almost certainly be happy to hear about an amazing new archive of classic computer industry footage which just emerged online. Created in the 1980s by the U.K.’s BBC public broadcasting company, the footage comes from something called The Computer Literacy Project, aimed at inspiring a generation of people to code.

BBC’s iPlayer app is finally available on Apple TV

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bbc_iplayer_apple_tv
Just in time for Christmas, too.
Photo: Paul Dunlop

BBC’s iPlayer app has landed on Apple TV in the U.K., joining the other streaming set top boxes — such as Roku, Google Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV — for which it was already available.

The app includes a full catalog of programs from the past month, along with live-streaming of BBC TV stations, the ability to start watching a program on your iPhone or iPad and then switch to Apple TV or vice versa, and personalized recommendations.

BBC iPlayer is coming to Apple TV ‘soon’

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Now you can rewind live TV streams in the BBC iPlayer
Apple TV owners in the U.K. will soon be able to enjoy BBC iPlayer.
Photo: BBC

The BBC has confirmed that its on-demand “catch-up” iPlayer service is coming to the new Apple TV for the first time.

Despite being available on other platforms including Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon’s Fire TV, Sky’s Now TV and various video game consoles, iPlayer has not previously been available through Apple TV — although it was possible to use the BBC’s free iPlayer app for the iPad or iPhone via Airplay.

Hit a high with this slow-motion video of swooping birds

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From
From "Birds in Slow Motion" by the BBC's Earth Unplugged.
Photo: BBC/YouTube

You understand bird’s-eye view. How about the view of its prey?

It’s likely that mouse or fish don’t even see the canopy of feathers coming. Our eyes and brains barely work fast enough to process the sight ourselves, so the guys who work in the studio for the BBC’s Earth Unplugged slowed it down for us.

The Earth Unplugged slow-motion studio, which loves to deconstruct the spit of cobras and the flight of fleas frame by frame, has compiled a 70-second clip of a variety of birds as they take off, float and hover and, of course, stick their landings.

Tim Cook ‘deeply offended’ by accusations of labor abuse

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As if Tim Cook doesn't already have enough on his plate!
Tim Cook. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook has told Apple employees he’s “deeply offended” by the BBC’s critical documentary Apple’s Broken Promises that investigated working conditions inside Apple’s supply Asian supply chain.

In an email obtained by The Telegraph from Apple VP Jeff Williams to the company’s workers in the UK, Williams said he and Cook are offended by the BBC’s suggestion that Apple broke promises with workers in the supply chain, and that no other company is doing “as much as Apple does to ensure fair and safe working conditions.”

Williams also countered the BBC’s claims that Apple uses tin sourced through child labor in Indonesia, saying Apple is spearheading the movement to hold the tens of thousands of artisanal miners more accountable, rather than getting out of the country altogether.

BBC’s fact-tastic data-dicing tool puts your tiny life in perspective

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So many changes. Screengrab: BBC
So many changes. Screengrab: BBC

Wondering how many solar eclipses there have been since the day you were born? How about when your next birthday on Mercury is? Perhaps you want to know how much Earth’s population has changed since your very special day.

You can answer these questions and more at BBC Earth with this interactive tool — you just plug in your birthdate, height, and gender, and you’ll get all sorts of interesting facts about our planet, as it relates to your lifespan.

“Find out how,” says the BBC site, “since the date of your birth, your life has progressed; including how many times your heart has beaten, and how far you have travelled through space.”

Heady stuff, indeed.

Elementary! Sherlock returns for fourth season plus Christmas special

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Sherlock

The official BBC One Twitter account had a surprise for fans of its hit show Sherlock Wednesday with a tease that the oft-delayed series about a modern Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick John Watson will be returning.

Go for goal with these World Cup essentials

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world cup

The supermarkets are already full of Brazil-related plastic junk, and even folks who only watch football once every four years are getting excited. Why? It’s World Cup time, of course!

Here we have a selection of apps and gadgets, clothes and toys to help you follow along and enjoy the show. The only thing we haven’t included is streaming app, because broadcast rights vary from country to country. Our workaround is to watch on TV or listen on the radio. Or do it like the Brazilians and head to your local bar.

The Sochi Olympics: Streaming, News And…Recommended Beverages

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This story first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine.

Want to watch the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but don’t have a TV? Or do you have a TV but just prefer the coverage given by other countries?

Then you’re in the right place. Today we’re going to take a look at ways to watch the games on your Mac and iDevices, and which apps you might want to use to follow along with the fun.

BBC’s New Streaming Video Service Takes Page Out Of iTunes Playbook

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BBC-Television-Centre

Given its tremendous success over the past 12 years, it’s easy to forget that the whole iTunes concept was once a risky proposition people weren’t sure would succeed.

Well, leap forward to the present day, and even the U.K.’s much-lauded BBC is taking its plays from Apple’s playbook — by announcing that it is rethinking (or at least augmenting) its classic flat license fee by borrowing from the iTunes/Netflix model and charging users £5 ($8.25) to download their favorite shows.

Samsung Doesn’t Just Copy Apple; It’s Ripping Off Dyson’s Vacuum Cleaners, Too

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Samsung has earned quite a name for itself copying Apple’s most successful products, but it’s not only in smartphones, tablets, computers, and accessories where the South Korean company sources its inspiration from its closest rivals. British manufacturer Dyson is suing Samsung for allegedly ripping off one of its inventions in a new vacuum cleaner that was unveiled at IFA in Berlin last week.

U.K. Children’s Show Awards Jony Ive Prestigious “Blue Peter” Badge [Video]

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Jony-Ive-Blue-Peter

Jony Ive has received a whole host of awards for his design efforts at Apple, but as a life-long fan of children’s TV show Blue Peter, none of them may be as special as his latest from the BBC: a gold Blue Peter badge. Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design now joins a list of just 1,000 people awarded with a gold badge, which also includes David Beckham, JK Rowling, and the Queen.

BlackBerry Product Manager Too Terrified And Superstitious To Say The Word ‘iPhone’

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What IS that thing on the left?
What IS that thing on the left?

RIM’s European managing director, Stephen Barnes, was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 this morning about the new BlackBerry 10 system and phones coming down the line.

The host of the interview repeatedly asks direct, clear questions about what RIM has learned from Apple’s iPhone.

Barnes hilariously refuses to even acknowledge the word iPhone, let alone that RIM has obviously taken several pages from Apple’s smartphone book. Even, worse, he sounds scared.

Google And Netflix Want To Destroy AirPlay With DIAL

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airplayisdeadmaybe

One of the best things about owning an Apple TV is the ability to share everything on your Mac’s screen with the flatscreen in your living room. It works perfectly. If there’s video on the Internet that you can’t find on one of the Apple TV apps, you don’t have to worry about it; you just screen share and enjoy.

Google and Netflix are tired of Apple having all the fun with wireless video streaming between devices, so they’ve brewed up their own solution to compete with AirPlay. The new protocol is called DIAL, and like Android, it’s free and already has some big companies backing it.

BBC iPlayer Now Rewinds Live TV

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Now you can rewind live TV streams in the BBC iPlayer
Now you can rewind live TV streams in the BBC iPlayer

BBC has added “Live Restart” to its iPlayer app. This will let Brits hit a button to rewind live TV up to two hours. Thus, if you miss the beginning of a live show you can just skip back to the beginning.

This handily closes the gap between live streaming and the watch-later service that lets you go back and catch TV shows aired in the past two weeks.